Cleveland State Beats Kent State 57-53 Before A Packed House

The SEC or Big East didn’t need to send teams like Vanderbilt or West Virginia to Northeast Ohio last night in order to create that big-time basketball atmosphere.

The Cleveland State Vikings and Kent State Golden Flashes took care of that by themselves. Besides, they beat those two teams already anyways.

As a result of those early signature wins, Cleveland State came in ranked 26th in the AP Poll while the votes Kent State received had them slotted at 37th. Both collectively recognized as two of the nation’s top-40 college basketball teams, both hailing from Northeast Ohio.

6,327 basketball fans filed in as a result last night. The largest crowd for a non-conference game at Kent State in forty years.

The players may have been a little too hyped up about all that though, on both sides. There was certainly a collection of spectacular plays scattered throughout the game, but it did lack some flow offensively. Trevon Harmon, after hitting the game winner against St. Bonaventure, went 0-9 from the field. Kent State Guard Mike Porrini had only 2 points in 36 minutes. There were a total of 42 turnovers in the game, and 38 fouls. Some of that had to do with defense, the rest of it with simply wanting to do well so badly.

I couldn’t have appreciated the effort from both sides more though, even if both coaches have them running windsprints all the way through Thanksgiving. They gym was electric at the opening tip, and those players in that game created that environment. Cleveland State did more to take advantage of it though, and came out on fire. Jeremy Montgomery hit two three’s early to give CSU a 12-2 lead they’d never look back from. He finished with a team high 13.

In an effort to possibly find out who he feels he can trust the most on a bench that literally appears to be at least 10 guys deep for CSU, Gary Waters substituted a whole new five in together at around the 14 minute mark. That second group, led by Charles Lee (7 pts 3 ast), Anton Grady (4 pts, 6 reb), and Sebastian Douglas (4 pts, 3 reb), helped maintain the Vikings lead until Waters subbed all five of his starters back in together about 7 minutes later. At the break Cleveland State led 30-21.

Both teams came out with an increased intensity in the second half, and Kent State fought all the way to the end despite the loss. The game wasn’t really as close as the final four point margin would indicate, but that should take nothing away from the team that KSU has this season. Justin Greene had 13 for Kent, and Chris Evans came off the bench to score 14. Even though they didn’t have their best games, guys like Carlton Guyton (8 pts), Randall Holt (7 pts), and Porrini can all play too.

Cleveland State is just a real good team this year. Even on an off-night, they can beat an AP Top-40 team on the road. That should be more the takeaway here, for both sides. Sure the game was sloppy at times, and for some reason no television stations felt it worthy to broadcast, but both of these teams are good. Both teams are NCAA Tournament teams. Cleveland State is just better.

The AP voters will reward CSU for beating the quality opponent that Kent State is at their place last night too. I expect them to be ranked in the Top-25 for sure next week. If CSU was as high as No. 22 I wouldn’t be surprised. Kent State shouldn’t fall too far off the radar either with the loss. The bigger test will be to see what these two teams will do from here.

How good the young players that Gary Waters has infused this group led by D’Aundray Brown (11 pts, 3 reb, 1 ridiculous blocked shot) with can’t be understated either. The numbers may not necessarily jump off the page at you, but Charles Lee is a very solid PG who knows how to play the position. Anton Grady will develop into a star one day too under Waters’ tutelage. It should be a fun ride this season with this CSU group as a result.

Next up for Cleveland State (4-0) is The Ticket City Legends Classic at Kingston Rhode Island where they open with Boston University on Friday. Kent State (2-1) plays host to Louisiana Lafayette next Monday.

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Nice, I really hope Cleveland State goes deep in the NCAA tourney this year, I’ve felt they got screwed the past few years. Oh, and I hope only the northeast Ohio teams get covered for college basketball this year…why bother with Ohio State when there’s so many quality teams in northeast Ohio?

Mike

Cleveland State’s physical play really affected Kent early, which allowed the Vikings to build that early lead. Then Kent couldn’t make an open three to save their lives. Not a great game by any stretch, but a good road win for the Vikings and a good, humbling moment for Kent.

With all that said, the officiating last night was some of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. One official in particular apparently just learned the signal for “travelling,” and so used it as often as possible. It didn’t make a huge impact on the final result, but it made an already-bad game nearly unwatchable at times.

Goldenflash7903

I don’t like seeing Kent lose, but at least it was to a good Cleveland St. team Since Gary was the coach while I was at Kent St., it is hard for me to root against him, he is such a good coach.

Shamrock

Go Vikes go!

B-bo

It was a heck of a game to watch, despite the outcome. I think both squads should be making noise in March.

Nice to see you writing Bodie and nice work.NOW THEN.In my opinion, the stepping out of the batter's box after each pitch is actually a larger factor in slow play than anything the pitcher does. Pitcher doesn't even start his routine until delicate flowers like Nomar and Jeter and the familiar guy below are all […]

If I accept that McCowen was not brought in to start than why are we paying him starting QB money? Does that mean we have just tossed another $14M away to try to coach our last QB disaster Manziel because we can't admit a mistake????? Just at what point during this disaster of an off […]

I was actually glad I didn't see the result. I can't stand the fact that the likes of the Leader and other outlets actually keep ST records and rank the teams like it was the regular season.Great job, bode.